Tap into dyslexia and we're away laughing

Dyslexics such as David Craig, 10, may miss the detail but discern larger patterns, Tom West says. Picture / Martin Sykes

Tapping into the way dyslexics think may help solve some of the world's remaining mysteries - at least that's what some dyslexics say.
Dyslexic American author Tom West, Auckland dyslexic tutor Julie Craig and schoolteacher Christine Earl - all parents of dyslexic children - tell us we should stop thinking about dyslexia as a handicap and start seeing it as "a gift".

"We tell our kids it's a gift to be able to think outside the square," Mrs Craig says.

"It's really unfortunate that we have to teach them to think inside the square a lot because that's the way the world operates at the moment."

Mr West, who did not know he was dyslexic until he was 41, heads the Centre for Dyslexia and Talent at George Mason University in Washington, DC. He began a New Zealand tour with a seminar in Auckland this week.

He says dyslexics, who may not spot the difference on paper between, say, "symphony" and "sympathy", can nevertheless see "the big picture" which ordinary detail-readers often miss.

"They have a pattern-recognition skill and an ability to come at something from a different direction and therefore pick a pattern which other people don't see."

In a series of tests a few years ago, dyslexics did only averagely or below-average on tests with a logical, known answer such as "fill in the gap".

But they excelled on a test called the "impossible figure", where they were shown a drawing which was impossible to construct in three-dimensional space.

"The ones who were the fastest at identifying that were the dyslexics," Mr West said. "They look at the total picture. If you have something that is truly novel, which no one has seen before and which requires you to look at the whole thing, then dyslexics have a superior ability."

Auckland University researcher Karen Waldie reported last week that dyslexics use a different part of their brain for reading than other people - the right side of the brain, which is associated with spatial and creative thinking rather than the sequential left-brain thinking used by most people to read A, B, C, D and E.

Dyslexics include geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein. They also dominate modern computer graphics.

"Einstein was always thinking in images; that's where the good ideas come from," Mr West said.

Mr West himself did not learn to read until his third or fourth year at school, but did not know what his problem was until his two sons were diagnosed with dyslexia in their school years. They are now 29 and 30.

He believes the whole school system should be changed to foster visual/spatial skills as well as verbal/mathematical ability.

"Our education system is based on a certain technology - reading, writing and books - that was very rarely used by a small group of people only a few hundred years ago. Now it's spread to the entire population," he said.

"There are lots of jobs in the world where people would have learned by doing.

"Now everyone has to sit exams. If you want to get into art school you have to do these complicated scholarly papers.

"I said, why not ask the scholars, the lawyers, the historians, to do a great painting or sculpture or musical composition before they can get into university or law school? What are we thinking about here?"

He said schools still needed to help dyslexics to improve their reading, but they should also encourage them to develop things they were good at and enjoyed.

Mrs Craig said her teaching played to dyslexics' strong sense of humour.

Her husband Derek, who is not dyslexic, said he often wondered what was going on when he heard "hysterical laughter" ringing out constantly from the room where his wife was teaching. "It's not like any form of learning I have seen before," he said.

But Mr West said that, just as dyslexics could learn how to read, so non-dyslexics could learn from the strengths of dyslexics. "If you are teaching for dyslexics, you are also teaching for the mainstream."

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